Final answer:
The [ch] sound can be spelled as , cha , or sha depending on the positioning and surrounding letters in a word. After a stressed short vowel or in a VCC construct, it's , while palatalization before certain suffixes changes it to .
Step-by-step explanation:
In English spelling, the sound [ch] can be spelled in three ways: , , and . Determining which spelling to use depends on its position in a word and the surrounding letters. This is taught to enhance spelling proficiency and help with pronunciation. To complete the activity of finding the sequence ch in words, we would look at individual words and apply the rules stated.
For example, if [ch] follows a short stressed vowel and ends a free morpheme, it is spelled as in the word 'watch.' Otherwise, [ch] is typically spelled as , and sometimes as due to palatalization. In the term 'actual' as in 'actually,' the [ch] sound is spelled with a because the default spelling of the sound [ch] changes when it precedes the suffix -ual or -ure, among others.
Let's apply these rules: Underline the letters that spell [ch] in the following words; culture (spelled ), intellectual (spelled ), questions (spelled ), unfortunately (spelled ), and naturally (spelled ). Now, sort these words into groups based on how [ch] is spelled. For instance, watch and sketches would be sorted into group , and words like church and chalk into .